Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: First Look Interplanetary Survey Droid Information
Ragnaat wrote:
Kollos wrote:
Until we actually know what the Droid's report looks like I'm not going to get down on these droids. For all we know, the report that comes back will be a list of every resource (of the appropriate type) on the planet along with full stats.
THAT would be useful. I'd use those suckers all the time even if none of your concerns were addressed simply because having access to full SWGCraft-style information in-game would rule. Remember, the report is an email... you can reference it again later if you want.
Ahh... but I have 2 computer screens up on my desk and can reference swgcraft (or these boards) and play at the same time already. (not to mention how much of a mess managing a dozen or so droid emails might be for the various planets and types of material you may have sent droids out for).
Sorry to bring a bad attitude into your revamp, but I'm just not feeling these things right now. Hopefully the devs get enough feedback in enough time to sort through it and I'll be more impressed with these things by the time they hit live.
And that's why we are talking about it.
I too have two monitors, and can do both at once. However, I'd STILL rather have it in-game - it's the same reason I don't like the Galaxy Trade forums, and why I do like the POI tabs.
I like this droid, and I want it to be useful - but the time frame, lack of multiple uses, and the use of a survey tool each and every time, are going to severely limit it, no matter what data it returns.
AO
Its not just the inconvenience of having to alt-tab out, its also the fact that its just not part of the game. I know there are quite a few people who either don't or would prefer not to use swgcraft or other web sites because its not the same as getting the information through the game. It just ruins some of the immersion.
Ragnaat wrote:
Ahh... but I have 2 computer screens up on my desk and can reference swgcraft (or these boards) and play at the same time already. (not to mention how much of a mess managing a dozen or so droid emails might be for the various planets and types of material you may have sent droids out for).
Sorry to bring a bad attitude into your revamp, but I'm just not feeling these things right now. Hopefully the devs get enough feedback in enough time to sort through it and I'll be more impressed with these things by the time they hit live.
Mithicle wrote:
If this is going to be a throwaway droid will it count towards the 5 max in the datapad?
no, its like the bounty hunter droids, just an item (which hopefully will eventually have uses)
Kollos wrote:
Not to be snarky, but you're abnormal. How many people do you really think have twin computer screens on their game system so that they can read a web site and play at the same time? Pretty small group of people.
And even so, as many people have pointed out SWGCraft is never up-to-date. It's always behind or off by a little bitin some way, whereas a survey droid gets you perfect information.
Mind you, I'm not 100% happy with patch 8. But at least when it comes to these survey droids, I think people are ragging on them when they don't have sufficient information to be doing so. We don't know how they work yet, so give 'em a chance.
Message Edited by AudioOrgana on 04-15-2004 06:35 PM
A worry I have now, that people would need even more of these, is, esp if it reports stats, is that someone sets up a business of surveying all the planets daily for all the resources, and then forwards the resulting emails to his/her customers for a fee. I think if possible the report email should be non-forwardable (although I don't think you could get around people copying and pasting to a new one anyway, so no point.
The information should be returned encrypted for the owner's eyes only, somehow. Sure someone could copy down the information and re-type it, but I foresee people, just forwarding the information to others and perhaps there not being hardly any sales of these.
I don't know if these ideas are good ones, it's just a concern I just thought up.
Iree
Just thought of something.
This survey droid might be usable by everyone, and it might return with stats on the resources, but I doubt it will return with wp of high concentration.
So therefor anyone using this and wants to persue the resource would need some survey skills and thus they can most likely also make the survey tool themself.
Judgement: No. I am in favor of offering the survey tools, in crates, as seperate items. To include the survey tool during crafting will add an extra harvestor step, and a seperate harvestor run for each of the seven types of survey droids (mineral, Flora, water, wind, solar, chemical, gas). The only improvement I would approve is to make the droids themselves type selectable at the time of deployment. Let the schematic suck up a few more resources. Perhaps the equivilent of the most expensive survey tool? Considering the number of "I'll never use one of these, and no one else will either" posts I have seen, we need to press for a slightly more versitile droid. Considering it is expendable, it could also stand a little trimming on the resource side.
I, for one, will use the crap out of these things. Especially with the increase in unique resource requirements. Ultimately, I would like to see an uber version of this droid that will survey ALL the surveyable resources on a planet. Or perhaps let it select up to three or four (read: Mineral, chemical & Gas). Or how about this... Let it take more than one survey tool with, dependent on quality, or level.
Kaldeth wrote:
This survey droid might be usable by everyone, and it might return with stats on the resources, but I doubt it will return with wp of high concentration.
I make it to be 4,200 each by my system. That is NOT taking into account the requirement for the Vertex Crystaline which is running 8-20 CPU on Flurry. The fact that quality is not an issue balances this out.
My system takes into account the number of sub-components, number of factory runs, number that can be made in one run, and total resources required.
AudioOrgana wrote:
Well, it's not abnormal for anyone to be able to alt-tab out, though.
Actually, I'm abnormal in that regard. I can't alt-tab out because SWG crashes when I try to go back to the game. It really sucks.
You are right - I pointed out myself several times yesterday about SWG craft and that it's not always reliable - however, to say it's never "up to date" isn't true. I also really like that it's "perfect" information.
However, I'm not looking so much for will *I* use it, it's more about will people PAY for it.
True enough, though if you and I are willing to use it that's a pretty good indication that others will, too, in which case someone will probably pay for it as well.
To me, the most critical piece of information that we're currently missing is exactly what information the droid reports back. Personally, a simple list of resources is useless. I can barely remember the ones that are famous - there's very little chance that a report saying "Durosuckism Carbonite Steel is available on Tatooine" will mean anything to me. Without a list of Durosuckism's stats the information is virtually useless to me.
No one is ragging on it, we are simply working with what little infomation we have. If we do not discuss these possibilities now, there is no chance that a change can be made before live if one is needed. Unfortunately, the Devs refuse to tell us their intentions with such things, and this is how we have to operate.
What information we have is this : it's one time use, it needs a survey tool, and it takes a 1/2 hour to report back.
Even if it reports full stats, I don't see this being much use to many people -not to mention thate-mails can be easily forwarded.
The email forwarding "problem" exists no matter how the other concerns are resolved. Another way to look at this droid, though, is that organizations like the DEA can focus on finding waypoints for the resources instead of just figuring out that they exist. If I know that a new Polymer with good stats just popped on some other planet, I can send out a request on DENet for a waypoint and maybe one of my helpful colleagues on that planet will help me out.
I'd be perfectly happy with this droid and think it would sell if the three things above were addressed - even if the droid just reported back what was on the planet with no stats. Waiting 1/2 hour is the worst part - people that have that long to wait aren't the market that are begging for this droid.
To some extent, I agree. The instant-gratification types are the ones who will buy this droid by the crate load. However, I disagree that it'll be useful if all it does is list the resources available on the planet - those same instant gratification types won't be satisfied with such trivial information because it's just not that useful.
Lonkley wrote:
Kaldeth wrote:
This survey droid might be usable by everyone, and it might return with stats on the resources, but I doubt it will return with wp of high concentration.
You think so?
*rolls eyes*
Not sure on how to read your reply. What I was going for in my post was that to be able to place a harvester to mine a resource you would be best of to survey the land for a good concentration of what you wish to mine. And to survey you need novice artisan at least, and at novice artisan you can make all 7 survey tools.
I dont know how much information the Survey droid will return if you send it out to collect data on flora the flora found on Rori for example. But I doubt it will return a WP for the highest concentration of all the various flora types available. So if the droid gives you information that the resource type you are looking for is on the planet in question you still need to survey to find the high concentration.
I am aware that if the survey droid remain usable by all, even those not with novice artisan they need to get the proper tool somehow, with the way the survey droid works at the moment. Then if they wish to sell or give away the information about what resource can be found where it is up to them.
But the fact remain. To survey for a WP you need novice Artisan or better and as novice artisan you can make all the various survey tools.